1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus and a maintenance method for a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
Generally speaking, ink jet recording apparatuses, which are a type of liquid ejecting apparatus, include a recording head (liquid ejecting head), and a nozzle that ejects ink (the liquid) is formed in a nozzle formation surface in the recording head. Because the recording head prints by discharging pressurized ink from the nozzle onto a recording sheet (a recording medium) as ink droplets, there are cases where when ink is discharged onto the recording surface of the recording sheet, the discharged ink splashes back from the recording surface of the recording sheet and adheres to the nozzle formation surface of the recording head. Meanwhile, when cleaning the recording head in order to suppress clogs in the nozzle opening and so on, ink forcibly discharged from the nozzle collects within a cap that makes contact with the nozzle formation surface, and thus there are cases where ink adheres to the nozzle formation surface. In order to wipe away ink that has adhered to the nozzle formation surface in this manner, a wiper (cleaning member) configured of a flexible rubber elastic member is provided, and the nozzle formation surface of the recording head is cleaned by sliding the tip portion of the wiper across the nozzle formation surface of the recording head, thereby wiping off the nozzle formation surface.
Incidentally, when wiping the nozzle formation surface of the recording head using the wiper, the ink removed from the nozzle formation surface by the wiping adheres to the tip portion of the wiper. There is thus a problem in that if the nozzle formation surface is then wiped for cleaning by the wiper in such a state where ink adheres to the tip portion of the wiper, the ink that adheres to the tip portion of the wiper will once again adhere to the nozzle formation surface. JP-A-6-143597, for example, proposes a head surface (nozzle formation surface) cleaning apparatus for a recording head in order to avoid this problem.
With the head surface cleaning apparatus for a recording head according to JP-A-6-143597, a wiper is attached to a slider having a rack (toothed portion); the rack of the slider is interlocked with a pinion, and by transferring rotational movement from a driving source to the pinion, the slider is caused to make back-and-forth movements, thereby causing the wiper to make back-and-forth movements in a linear direction. Furthermore, an absorption member, configured of a porous material and having an absorption surface that is capable of making contact with the tip portion of the wiper after the wiper has wiped the nozzle formation surface of the recording head, is disposed within the back-and-forth direction of the wiper. When cleaning the head surface of the recording head, the wiper is moved back and forth, thereby wiping off ink that has adhered to the head surface; furthermore, the tip portion of the wiper to which ink has adhered as a result of the aforementioned wiping is slid across the absorption surface of the absorption member, and the ink that has adhered to the tip portion of the wiper is absorbed by the absorption member as a result.
Incidentally, with the head surface cleaning apparatus for a recording head according to JP-A-6-143597, when the tip portion of the wiper is slid across the absorption surface of the absorption member in a state in which ink adheres to the wiper and the ink that was present on the tip portion of the wiper adheres to the absorption surface of the absorption member as a result, the ink that adheres to the absorption surface has sometimes dried and hardened on that absorption surface. If the ink that adheres to the absorption surface in this manner hardens and collects on the absorption surface, the porous absorption member will experience clogs due to the collected ink in the absorption surface on which the ink has collected, resulting in a risk that it will become difficult for the absorption member to absorb ink adhering to the tip portion of the wiper.